The present invention relates to a passenger protection apparatus of a vehicle, and, in particular, relates to a passenger protection apparatus to protect a passenger seated in a passenger's (assistant's) seat.
Conventionally, a passenger protection apparatus of a vehicle, in which an airbag is configured so that a surface of the inflating airbag which faces to a passenger seated in a passenger's (assistant's) seat forms a recessed shape, is known as disclosed in US Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0005633. In such a passenger protection apparatus, an upper part of the surface of the airbag which is located above the recessed shape may function as a receiving portion to receive a face of a relatively large-sized passenger, while a lower part of the surface of the airbag which corresponds to the above-described recessed shape may function as another receiving portion to receive a face of a relatively small-sized passenger (a woman, for example). Thus, the passenger may be protected properly in accordance with the body size of the passenger.
However, there is a concern that in case the passenger is the relatively small-sized passenger, the above-described passenger protection could not necessarily receive the passenger's face at the receiving portion securely depending on the sitting position of this passenger. That is, in general, when the vehicle collides in case the seatbelt device is applied to the passenger, the passenger is controlled so that an upper body of the passenger leans forwardly, without letting a passenger's waist portion away from a seatback of the seat by a lap belt of the seatbelt device, so that the passenger's face can be received at the inflating airbag. However, there is a case in which a point (i.e., a position of the passenger's waist portion) around which the passenger's upper body leans forwardly in the vehicle collision described above changes depending on the sitting position the passenger seated in the passenger's seat, so that a position of the passenger's face changes as well. Consequently, the passenger's face could not be properly received at an appropriate receiving portion for the relatively small-sized passenger of the airbag.